The only good part to all of Dead Souls is finally being able to play as Majima; his segment is fucking grand. But everything else... it's garbage. Shooting feels super weak (Dead Souls may go on record for having the most unsatisfying gatling gun ever) and it all gets very tedious very quickly, especially if you're trying to go through all of the sub-stories.

And the adventure elements are literally the exact same as they've always been. Nothings changed. Y'know, for as much as everybody likes to complain about CoD being an annual franchise and not really adjusting their formula too much... I think Yakuza deserves some of that flak because it's the exact same situation for the most part. Dead Souls is basically Yakuza 4 (which itself was basically Yakuza 3), just instead of some surprisingly satisfying melee combat, you've got shooting that kinda resembles the shooting in the original Dead Rising, but worse. And the adventure elements themselves are so dated as well. There becomes a stage where ''Japanese quirk'' becomes ''archaic game design'' and Yakuza has definitely reached such a stage with Dead Souls.

@DonChipotle said:

So is this Yakuza 5 or is it like the one where you are a samurai and thus non canon?

I haven't played the Yakuza games yet, but the combat in those games is predominantly melee-based, right? This game seems completely different from Yakuza 1-4 in terms of combat. Not a fan of how the shooting seems in this, although I do want to play the other games at some point.

Patrick, you should probably play the yakuza games. They are a good mix of weird, funny, bad, melodramatic and legitimately serious and interesting. I've never played Shenmu, but they are kind of a successor to that, but with better gameplay (I'm lead to believe that you just do QTE's in Shenmu, but I don't know.)

I haven't played the Yakuza games yet, but the combat in those games is predominantly melee, right? This game seems completely different from Yakuza 1-4 in terms of combat. Not a fan of the shooting in this, although I do want to play the other games at some point.

Yakuza 4 is actually a decent place to startI think. It's basically got everything that Yakuza 3/Dead Souls has (minus the shooting, but you don't want that), just it's better, more refined in some spots. Plus 3/4 of its playable characters are completely new (Shun Akiyama, the guy in the QL, is one of 'em) so it kinda makes for a surprisingly accessible entry point as you enter into the fray about as fresh as the new faces.

I respect Patrick's opinion but having played all of the Yakuza games, the gameplay is really great and important in them. The fighting system in the last couple of games is some of the most brutal and visceral combat in any game. Also the story is important for this game, only reason I want to play it despite the gameplay looking like dogshit. You don't have to play the PS2 games, just play Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 4 which are amazing

Having two people who don't know anything about the series on the Quick Look was a great idea. At least if you want someone answering every question with "I think..." or "I don't know." and getting most of the "I think..." answers wrong.

For starters, the normal Yakuza games have more in common with Final Fantasy than GTA with a bit of Shenmue sprinkled in. Sidequests, inventory management, equippable items, random battles, improving your stats etc. are very much JRPG-like, the limited areas you can freely explore and sometimes mundane activities like playing darts or buying a drink at a bar are reminiscent of Shenmue. And of course QTEs.

Edit: Yes, Brad, the previous games all had C.C. Lemon and a bunch of other Suntory products.

@paulunga: I don't know if you know this or not but the giantbomb staff is made up of 5 guys. All of whom don't play Yakuza games. You complaining about them not knowing about the series is nonsensical. They're not here to tell you about the series influences, but show you how the game plays. Which happens to be exactly what they did.